Wedge sat sadly in the briefing room along with the other survivors. A disheveled Dodonna entered the room, followed by some of the Commanders.
“We have a lesson to learn from this battle,” he said. “The Imperials have much superior technology than us, so for the next week, we will be updating our technology. We have all our supporting planetary systems sending in their best technicians, electrical engineers and weapons designers.”
“But sir,” a young pilot called out. “We don’t have a ground base of our own yet.”
“We do now,” Dodonna replied. “Dantooine.”
Just as he said that, the ship burst out of Hyperspace and a dull green planet popped into view.
“It will not be a permanent base, as the Imperials will undoubtedly find us if we stay anywhere for long; but it will be a safe haven for us now.”
Twenty minutes later, transport shuttles and the remaining starfighters were spewing out of the bays and landing in their ground base. As Wedge walked down the ramp of his shuttle, he noticed about ten dozen new X-Wings in the enormous Bay. He hoped that Dodonna would grant him one of them, seeing what had befallen his old one. All the pilots gathered together and made their way to their new home for a week; maybe more.
************************************************** **********************
[10 days later]
************************************************** **********************
Dodonna stood with the guest techs and marveled at their handiwork. The X-Wings were severely modified using donations and parts supplied by the member planets of the Rebel Alliance. The only things that were same in the new crafts were the body shells, and even those had been extended a bit further to accommodate the new components. He turned to one of the techs,
“On behalf of the Alliance, I thank you very much, Mr. Jacob, for your excellent work.”
Jacob nodded and handed Dodonna a couple of memory chips.
“You are most welcome, Admiral,” he replied. “These chips contain the new schematics of these ships, I though you might want them.”
Dodonna accepted them and put them in his pocket.
“I sure would,” he said. “I’ll send these to the Incom Factories and ask them to produce these designs as the standard T-65 models from now on.”
“Good idea, Admiral, but you probably shouldn’t use the Type K missile in all the ships, they're kind of expensive.”
Dodonna nodded,
“Right, I’ll remember that.”
The techs shook hands with Dodonna and left for their shuttle. Dodonna went back to the tactical room where everyone was gathered.
As he entered, Mon Mothma was briefing them on the Imperials’ next target: Bespin; she had just finished, it seemed.
“Perfect timing, Admiral,” she said. “You're up.”
Dodonna turned to the people.
“I have good news for all the pilots: you now have completely state-of-the-art ships to use on behalf of the Alliance.”
A great cheer rang through the room; all the pilots were rejoicing like small kids. Dodonna nodded and spoke again,
“We don’t have time to lose, however; we need to depart immediately to get to Bespin in time.”
That was the cue: all the troops filed out of the room and headed to their posts with renewed confidence in their pilots. Soon, the reestablished pilots were rocketing away to the Command Ship orbiting the planet.